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The highly-anticipated day has finally arrived. Our kitchen is no more. Below are a few photos from the first time we saw the house. It was usable, but the terrible layout made cooking difficult and the whole room was extremely dated.

Our layout had two small L-shaped counters. Only one counter had electrical outlets.
Did I mention that between looking at the house and closing the previous owner let their dog pee all over the floors? Apparently some of the pee ended up on the coils under the fridge. Every time the fan came on the smell would blow through the whole house. We replaced the fridge within a month to get rid of the smell. When we started demo last week, our new fridge found a temporary home in the living room and the range moved to the garage where we plugged it into the welder outlet. Everything else has to go away for good.
Luke started by ripping out the soffits then removing cabinets The brown stains around the middle of the room are the adhesive for the Formica bac…

After weekends full of moving and cleaning river rock the front easement is converted into a rock garden. Before:When we first moved in, before I took a hatchet to the giant weeds. After: We moved and cleaned twenty cubic yards of river rock but it turned out well. We have already received several compliments front the neighbors. It's a little bland now but in the spring I'll fill the planters with the brightest flowers I can find. Added bonus, people have finally stopped driving through our yard! We were so fed up I was ready to lay tack strips for the next unlucky vehicle.

After what seems like an eternity, the garage is finished. One year ago it looked like this:
I am pleased to report a few slight improvements since then. Because this is only a one car garage we needed all the storage space we could get for our tools. The shelving and benches allow plenty of storage without sacrificing our precious floor space. We both like to watch/listen to movies while working. We added computer speakers and a sub so we can hear over the noise of the tools. Overkill? Maybe. But it sure makes the garage a pleasant place to work. Heater, A/C, cable and wi-fi are all hooked up. When we start our demo of the main part of the house this will make a nice little living area as well.

It's been nearly a year since we were granted our building permit and began the conversion of our carport into a finished garage. Since then we have managed to run into every kind of possible delay, back ordered supplies, code problems, health problems and Luke's unexpectedly busy work schedule. Despite all these complications the garage is finally finished. I will be posting interior pictures later; today's post is all about the exterior.
August 2008. Our lovely carport the day we moved in. We learned from the neighbors that the previous owner had the carport built to cover some of the junk in the back yard. The city had received multiple complaints about his yard and ordered him to get rid of the junk or cover it. And so the carport was built. Judging from the design it was never intended to be converted into finished space.
Now
The accent colors look very purple in this light. It's actually burgundy.
Compared to the freshly painted garage the house looks …

In case you did not see our bathroom before or have just forgotten how truly pathetic is was, here is a little refresher for you.
Dated, ugly, call it what you want, it had to go.
Looks a little better now, doesn't it? The old vanity top was so sloped that it was hard to keep anything on its surface.
So much better. Despite our initial problems with the grout, the tile floor turned out nicely.I cannot thank my parents enough for helping us with this project. As a reward I promise next time you visit we will let you use this bathroom instead of the weird little 3/4 bath at the other end of the house.

There's a monster living in my house. In fact, it's part of my house.
Our main bathroom has not been updated since the house was built in 1949. It has not improved with age. The tub drain is both blocked and leaking, making a shower impossible.I really hate having a window in the shower. If we could actually use the shower our neighbors would be getting a peep show every morning. The little bit of light it lets in does not make up for the constant battle against water damage and rot.This was/is actually a pedestal sink. Someone slapped together a vanity cabinet around it. The integrated faucet is charming, but the whole thing has to go. Pedestal sinks just don't have enough storageThe sink leaks, the toilet runs, there is no ventilation...the list goes on foreverLittle does the bathroom know that this is its last weekend on earth.
On Monday we are stripping it to the studs. Stay tune for demo photos.